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Scarecrow, an English Pale Ale Brewed by Wychwood

June 16, 2010

Scary scarecrow on the label, flying witches pressed into the amber glass of the bottle — why don’t they call it Harry Potter Ale?

“Oh boy,” I said aloud, peering into the huge refrigerator case devoted entirely to imported beer at my local Palestinian bodega, “a beer with a Satanic, or at least a Wiccan, theme,” noting that the beer had been made by Oxfordshire’s Wychwood Brewery in Witney, England.

Alas, when I quaffed, though the beer had a fine medium amber color, the taste was rather dull and flat, too smooth by a mile. That might be good for some — the beer certainly was refreshing on a humid evening in June, but it left me feeling empty inside in terms of the deeper intellectual enjoyment beer can provide. I give it 57 stars.